Apple challenges UK government in court over order to access private data

The technology company Apple seems ready to go to battle over the privacy of its users' data. The British government issued an order to force the company to provide the private data from its highest encryption systems. Now, Apple is taking this order to court.

According to the Financial Times, Apple filed an appeal with the British Investigatory Powers Tribunal, an independent judicial body that examines complaints against UK security services. The information has been picked up by several other media outlets throughout this week.

The British government's order forced Apple to withdraw one of its data encryption services in the UK.  Apple would access iCloud backups in certain cases where it otherwise could not, such as copies of iMessages, and turn them over to authorities if required to do so by law.

With end-to-end encryption previously enabled, Apple as well as the authorities could not access that data.

The British government claims that access to such data is necessary in the fight against crime and terrorism. However, since this summer the Labour government of Keir Starmer has come under scrutiny due to its strong repression of anti-immigration criticism on social media after several violent outbreaks of rioting erupted following the death of four minors at the hands of a boy of African origin.

This led the Starmer government to arrest several hundred social media users who, according to authorities, incited racial hatred and protests.

According to Reuters, a British Home Office spokesman declined to comment, but said privacy is "only exceptionally affected in relation to the most serious crimes and only when necessary." Reuters reported last week that US officials were investigating whether Britain had violated a bilateral pact by allegedly pressuring Apple to create a "backdoor" that would allow the government to access encrypted cloud backups.